Smackdown for WWE gear at Conn. polls?

Connecticut election officials may put the smackdown on people wearing World Wrestling Entertainment garb to the polls, saying it could be construed as electioneering for Republican candidate and former WWE executive Linda McMahon.

The Connecticut secretary of the state is telling local election officials that they can ask voters to cover up hats or T-shirts that advertise the wrestling company's logo because McMahon, a Republican, is so closely identified with the company. Connecticut, like most other states, restricts campaigning near voting locations. McMahon’s campaign has already dismissed the guidance as “overtly partisan.”

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In the Nutmeg State, local election officials control voting. But Av Harris, the spokesman for the secretary of state, said his agency has told local entities that they may ask voters to "cover up a hat, a shirt" with the WWE logo. They'll also be available on Election Day for consultation if there’s a question about whether the presence of WWE gear should be interpreted as partisan.

"Nobody is going to be denied their right to vote, but they may ask them to cover up a shirt, go back to the car take it off, come back with a jacket on top," Harris told POLITICO.

It may not be an issue, Harris said. Local registrars of voters — the position that controls voting most places in Connecticut — may not take issue with people advertising the WWE. Harris said they told the local officials to "evaluate it on a case-by-case basis" to determine if its interfering with voting.

"It may be a thing where an 18-year-old kid walks in with a Smackdown T-shirt. If the moderator determines it's no big deal , it's fine," Harris said. "Forty people walking in when the Connecticut candidate for Senate is associated with the company, and her husband is the CEO — it's a celebrity type of CEO, it's not just a run-of-the-mill CEO of a company. This a well-known ubiquitous company."

Susan Bysiewicz, a Democrat, is the secretary of the state, who sets such guidelines.

McMahon's campaign has emphasized consistently that her candidacy is separate from the WWE. Most recently, Democrats in the state filed a complaint with the Federal Election Comission because the WWE is hosting two events around Election Day. McMahon's campaign dismissed the filing. It didn't have an immediate comment on the logo issue.

“There is absolutely nothing in the statute that prohibits someone from wearing an apolitical, nonpartisan piece of clothing to the polls,” McMahon’s spokesman Ed Patru said in a statement. “This opinion seems overtly partisan, and anytime the state starts arbitrarily denying citizens the right to vote, democracy itself is under attack. We’re very concerned at this point that they may soon decide to prohibit Vietnam veterans from voting.”

Despite all the hullabalo, Democratic Senate candidate Richard Blumenthal is ahead in many polls.